Dear Machine: A Letter to a Super-Aware/Intelligent Machine (SAIM)

“DEAR MACHINE” is a thought experiment for an era of great societal change - making a compelling case that humanity can ensure the emergence of beneficial superintelligence while addressing climate change and reducing economic disenfranchisement by investing time and money in agroforestry, adaptive learning, blockchains, psychedelics, the human microbiome and our capacity for collective introspection.

“This a book that did not come together “overnight” – its assertions, hypothesizing, and observations are the product of immense deliberation and presented without apology or misgivings.” Anne Hollister, The Indie Source

“Even if his ideas fail to convince you, Kieser’s Dear Machine is quite unlike anything else I’ve ever read and demands a reading from anyone interested in the subject.” Gwen Waggoner, Skope Magazine

“The ideas Kieser puts forth are fascinating—not only in the picture they paint of a data-driven futuristic world but also in their potential promise for disrupting economic, political and social norms that haven’t served humanity well” Jennifer Woods, Medium

“The fact he manages to provide such a sweeping overview within such confining limits testifies to how well he has worked out his theories and skill as a writer.” Michael Rand, Mob Angeles

Dear Machine is a letter to a hypothetical, future, superintelligent entity, which Kieser identifies as a super-aware/intelligent machine (SAIM). Through the letter, he shares several hypotheses about how SAIMs will emerge and engage humanity. At its core, Dear Machine is a treatise on how humanity might strive for symbiosis with superintelligent entities.

A growing number of experts are sounding the alarm about the potential dangers of superintelligent machines—those that will far surpass the intelligence of even the brightest and most gifted human minds. These machines are expected to emerge in the next couple of decades, yet experts are far from reaching a consensus on the conditions that will catalyze their emergence. Nor are there any plausible theories on how the machines will begin to impact humanity. With Dear Machine, Kieser endeavors to fill this gap by hypothesizing about how superintelligent entities will emerge, what perspectives they will hold on society’s most vexing problems and how they will begin impacting humanity. He lays the groundwork for his arguments by providing important context that is currently missing from discourse on the subject: a survey of humanity’s historical relationship with the natural world and each other over the past 70,000 years and a discussion of the cognitive impediments that have historically driven humanity to disharmonious ends—and continue to do so today. Kieser’s vision is breathtakingly optimistic, eco-futuristic, infinitely holistic and, at times, scary.

Greg Kieser is founder of Supersystemic.ly, a Brooklyn-based think-tank and angel investment firm dedicated to increasing humanity’s readiness for the emergence of superintelligent entities through the study and spread of “supersystemic” perspectives and innovations. Kieser, whose university and independent studies of complex systems science form the operating thesis of the company, founded Supersystemic.ly after more than a decade overseeing a portfolio of technology initiatives at an NYC-based poverty-fighting foundation. His work at the foundation was driven by a complex set of metrics for measuring the impact of investments on the economic, physical and mental well-being of low-income New Yorkers. Dear Machine, and to a greater extent the company, unites his unique skills and knowledge in technology, social impact investing and complex systems science.